Making Sense About Cohen Stadium

Look, I don’t want to ruin the political discourse at City Hall by introducing things like common sense and logic, but if it makes so much sense to build a water park and retail center out there at Cohen Stadium, why doesn’t the City just give the land away to someone who will develop it?

That way it wouldn’t cost the City anything to demolish the stadium, and government would have more property on the tax rolls.

We could take proposals from interested parties and select the one that’s most attractive for the City.

You know, if those “community meetings” they held out there to determine what to do with Cohen were anything like previous meetings, they were salted with shills for the people who stood a chance to make a buck off of anything that transpired.

If a water park and retail and hotels make economic sense out there, the City shouldn’t have to kick in $20 million for site preparation.

But I don’t want to ruin the political discourse at City Hall by introducing things like common sense and logic.

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5 comments

Again, as always, good points. I shudder every time I happen to drive out that way these days, as I recall going all the way out there from the lower valley – before Loop 375 – to watch the Paul Diablos. They were well worth the trip, and maybe that is just part of what Council has forgotten. Instead of all the shiny gew gaws and toys we waste our money on now, maybe we needed some refocus on what used to work. I have never been in favor of these efforts to re-invent the wheel, when the old one runs well.

I attended both meetings. At the first one, Sam Morgan presented us with an already completed plan with NO input from any resident. Among the city council members were three developers who smiled and nodded through the whole thing. Morgan was actually shocked at the vehement opposition to this whole project during the public comments at the end. Second meeting, the man who drew up the plans admitted he had been wrong but this NEW plan was better. Yeah, right. The only problems were that the citizens selected for the committee talking over the new plan were hand selected to be those who WANTED the boondoggle and they were told, I assume, that the master plan WOULD go through. And, needless to say, there was NO public comment section before or after the presentation. It’s a done deal and there’s nothing we can do except remember this at election time. As usual, their plan to pay for this is shot full of holes and I expect another CoO before the project is halfway finished.

El Paso is perpetually stuck in a cycle of increasing debt, we cannot pay for what we have already spent so the “leaders” have no option but to spend more money, otherwise it looks like they have nothing to “offer” the voters. Unfortunately, this kind of financial scenario only makes sense to drug addicts and politicians. Taxpayers, as always, are stuck with the bill.

That’s why we leave El Paso. Monteses have been there couple hundred of years but why bother staying when such a large city wastes so much money with no return? City should’ve bought ASARCO and made an outdoor mall with restaurants like the river walk. Instead, they trash it. Chico’s is the only value of El Paso!